Joanne Frye taught in English at the College of Wooster for over 30 years and was instrumental in establishing the Women’s Studies program in 1978. She went on to chair the program for multiple years, including the passage of the minor and the major. She taught both interdisciplinary courses and cross-listed courses with English, including Introduction to Women’s Studies, Women’s Studies Seminar, Feminist Perspectives on Motherhood, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Jane Austen, and Fiction by Women.
Joanne has published numerous articles and three books: Living Stories, Telling Lives: Women and the Novel in Contemporary Experience; Tillie Olsen: A Study of the Short Fiction; and Biting the Moon: A Memoir of Feminism and Motherhood. She recently completed a collection of stories for Storyworth, titled: A Mosaic of Memories.
Since retiring in 2009, Joanne has continued to live in Wooster with her husband, Ronald Tebbe. Her two daughters live in New York City. Both are mothers, teachers, and writers.